OF SELBORNE. 361 



LETTER LI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 3, 1781. 



I HAVE now read your Miscellanies through with much 

 care and satisfaction ; and am to return you my best 

 thanks for the honourable mention made in them of me 

 as a naturalist, which I wish I may deserve. 



In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that 

 many of the house martins do not depart in the winter 

 far from this village. I therefore determined to make 

 some search about the south-east end of the hill, where 

 I imagined they might slumber out the uncomfortable 

 months of winter. But supposing that the examination 

 would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and 

 observing that no martins had appeared by the llth of 

 April last ; on that day I employed some men to explore 



uncommon in Greece, and in other countries on the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean basin, I am compelled to refer to authorities for its structure, 

 as I am not aware of the existence in London of a living or preserved 

 specimen of the animal : Mr. Bell has the only two shells of it that are 

 known to me. Mrs. White's, for the loan of which I am indebted to her 

 kindness, may be a third : but it seems to me, with our present know- 

 ledge on the subject, that it must be regarded as distinct. 

 I propose for it the name of Testudo Whitei: in English 



GILBERT WHITE'S TORTOISE. 



E. T. . 



